What I'm Reading Now: Diaspora

A friend gave me a copy of Diaspora, by Greg Egan.

I'm only on page 40 (10%), but skimmed most of pages 1-20 when I realized it was a long description of one of the authors imagined future technologies at work.

I think this is a mistake. Good books start with action that draws the reader in, introduces characters that the reader cares about, and explains things like technology, setting, and others mostly in context of a more interesting storyline. I don't think narrating concepts directly to the reader works as well.

I get the author's purpose: the first chapter lets the reader experience the narrator's growth from creation to independence (the narrator is an AI). ...but it's hard to get through 40 pages where the narrator is not yet even sentient.

Anyway, I am interested to see what would happen next, now that I have some characters to watch. ...but I needed the wikipedia page to get some clarity on just what's happening.